Medical Science News

RSS

Researchers identify immune biomarkers that could help predict complications in HIV/TB patients

Doctors treating patients battling both HIV and tuberculosis (TB)--many of whom live in Africa--are faced with the decision when to start those patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) while they are being treated with antibiotics for active TB disease. Some patients fare well on both interventions, with the immune system in check and the TB controlled.

10 Feb 2015

Study: Simple blood test could predict risk of developing dementia

Scientists at Rigshopitalet, Herlev Hospital and the University of Copenhagen identify a new biomarker that can predict the risk of developing dementia by way of a simple blood test. In the long term, this could mean better prevention and thus at least postponement of the illness and at best evading the development all together.

10 Feb 2015

Duke University researchers devise new method to activate genes with light

Duke University researchers have devised a method to activate genes in any specific location or pattern in a lab dish with the flip of a light switch by crossing a bacterium's viral defense system with a flower's response to sunlight.

9 Feb 2015

BPC opens new plasma collection center in Jacksonville, North Carolina

Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a leading developer of immunology biotherapeutic products, is pleased to announce that it has opened a new plasma collection center. The state-of-the-art, 15,000 square foot facility located at 113 Yopp Road, Jacksonville, North Carolina, is BPC's second plasma center in Jacksonville, and officially opened its doors for business on February 3, 2015.

9 Feb 2015

Researchers develop quality assurance tool for genome editing

A research team at Boston Children's Hospital's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine has developed a quality assurance tool for scientists using genome-editing technologies like the increasingly popular CRISPR. The assay, called high throughput genome translocation sequencing (HTGTS), rapidly gauges—for any given gene—these technologies' accuracy and their risk for causing potentially dangerous genomic collateral damage.

9 Feb 2015

Researchers document pathological progress of multiple sclerosis

The Centre for Brain Research at the MedUni Vienna is regarded as a world leader in researching the mechanisms involved with multiple sclerosis (MS). Now, in a paper published in the highly respected journal Lancet Neurology, an international team of researchers from Edinburgh, Cleveland and Vienna, under the leadership of Hans Lassmann, Head of the Department of Neuroimmunology at the MedUni Vienna, has for the first time documented the pathological progress of the disease from its early to late stage and also shown that inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes have a role to play.

9 Feb 2015

Study reveals mechanical forces that drive epithelial wound healing

A collaborative study led by scientists from the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore has revealed the mechanical forces that drive epithelial wound healing in the absence of cell supporting environment. This research was published in Nature Communications in January 2015.

9 Feb 2015

Gramicidin-Based Fluorescence Assay can help predict drug toxicity

Sometimes, toxic side effects aren't discovered until fairly late in the drug development process, when substantial amounts of time and money have already been invested in clinical trials.

9 Feb 2015

New findings could pave way to develop drug therapies for necrosis-related diseases

Strokes, heart attacks and traumatic brain injuries are separate diseases with certain shared pathologies that achieve a common end - cell death and human injury due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen.

9 Feb 2015

Chili peppers show promise as diet-based supplement

Don't go chomping on a handful of chili peppers just yet, but there may be help for hopeful dieters in those fiery little Native American fruits.

9 Feb 2015

Discovery improves understanding of factors that trigger allergic asthma

When the mucosal surfaces in the lungs of healthy people come into contact with allergenic substances, so-called regulatory T cells also known as Treg cells, are activated. These are capable of actively preventing the development of allergies.

9 Feb 2015

Study: Modulation of alpha waves influences speech comprehension in everyday hearing situations

The elderly often complain about hearing difficulties, especially when several people are talking all at once.

9 Feb 2015

Research finding could help predict the next outbreak of plague

Biologists at the University of Oslo, Norway, are now making a giant effort to identify the relationship between climate change, rat infestations, and the many major plague epidemics throughout history. The knowledge may be used to predict the next plague outbreak.

9 Feb 2015

Preclinical testing of anti-Ebola antibodies can lead to universal flu vaccine

Does the blood of Ebola virus disease survivors contain antibodies and immune cells that could help doctors fight Ebola infections in other people?

9 Feb 2015

Scientists show pattern of connectivity in newly-generated hippocampal neurons

Research by a team of scientists from Cologne, Munich and Mainz has shown an unprecedented degree of connectivity reorganization in newly-generated hippocampal neurons in response to experience, suggesting their direct contribution to the processing of complex information in the adult brain.

9 Feb 2015

Study provides further evidence of cerebellum's role in higher cognitive functions

Grasping an object involves a complex network of brain functions. First, visual cues are processed in specialized areas of the brain. Then, other areas of the brain use these signals to control the hands to reach for and manipulate the desired object.

9 Feb 2015

Leading medical societies jointly release new statement on using carrier screening in reproductive medicine

Carrier screening for inherited genetic disorders is an important part of preconception and prenatal care for the nearly 4 million women who give birth in the US annually. Carrier screening is meant to identify couples at risk for passing on such genetic conditions to their children.

9 Feb 2015

Artificial mini-organism: An alternative to animal testing

No one wishes to dispense with the blessings of modern medicine, which took away the dread of many diseases. The flipside of the coin: To ensure that effective and safe medications are available, experiments on animals in research laboratories are indispensable.

9 Feb 2015

New study sheds light on anorexia nervosa

A study led by Howard Steiger, PhD, head of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Eating Disorders Program, in Montreal, in collaboration with Linda Booij, a researcher with Sainte-Justine Hospital and an assistant professor at Queen's University, is the first to observe effects suggesting that the longer one suffers from active anorexia nervosa (AN), the more likely they are to show disorder-relevant alterations in DNA methylation.

9 Feb 2015